


In His Eyes

by SuperQatarGirl



Series: Watcher of the Living Lands [5]
Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: Durance's thoughts, Gen, Ionni Brathr, Lion Companion, Sun in Shadow, fire is a metaphor for many things, not a nice man
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-23
Updated: 2019-01-23
Packaged: 2019-10-15 04:15:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17521829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuperQatarGirl/pseuds/SuperQatarGirl
Summary: Fire burns eternally, sometimes hot, sometimes steadily.





	In His Eyes

There was strength in that elf’s eyes, a strength that Durance would not see matched – never mind surpassed – until he stood face to face with Thaos ix Arkannon many months later. He recognised a soul in those eyes, a soul he knew he was to follow, to test. He would see if the strength this elf radiated matched what was inside him, if his soul could truly stand all the tests thrown at him, both by Durance and by the rest of the world – even the gods themselves, as their journey would have it. This would be interesting, and if the Watcher broke, then it was all the better.

“Saw you in the flames,” he’d said, and the elf had been startled, his ears swiveling around like the damned cat he had walking beside him, and head turning sharply to face the source of those… unusual words.

Durance’s first impression was that the boy was too smart-mouthed for his own good, though this trait almost always meant there were laughs to be had with him around, and Durance could at least appreciate that. Second, was that the boy was a bleeding heart, always willing to help, to go out of his way for other people and their petty problems. But the last of his qualities was the one Durance liked the best; his fire. The Watcher was, above all else, a passionate man, a man of action and of fire. When in the heat of battle, Durance would see those deep, golden eyes light up and flicker like a raging fire and the flames would burn until there was no more danger, until there was not even the tiniest hint of peril left.

The priest would see that fire several times over: when the Watcher dealt with the inbred lord of Gilded Vale; when he spoke before the duc’s court, defending animancy, that vile practice; when he stood before the great crystal at the center of Ionni Brathr, the Golem’s hammer in hand; and lastly when he stood before Thaos, crying out into the near-empty dome of Sun in Shadow, asking the question that had haunted his soul for millennia.

“ARE THERE NO GODS?!”

There were not, not to Durance, at least. The Watcher had freed him from his own delusions about Magran, the fiery wench, and now he knew so much better, saw the world with a greater clarity than he had before. The revelation had broken both his heart and spirit, but in the end he was glad for it, glad for the freedom and purpose it had brought him. He had seen the flash of regret in the Watcher’s eyes as he howled his pain, but it was a look that was instantly replaced with a fire, though this was of a different kind; this was a fire that burned steadily, not with the elf’s usual reckless abandon. There was a steadfastness to that fire that could be clung to and depended upon, and for a moment Durance understood why people had flocked to the Watcher as they had.

“Seems you were the field in need of cleansing.” The Watcher had only nodded at that, his own soul perhaps so close to the breaking point that he could not answer in any other way. It would not be much longer before the elf broke, too, Durance thought for a bitter second as he observed the now blank look in those fiery eyes. Or, perhaps, the soul might survive its ordeal, resilient as it had proven and the Watcher’s mind might live to see another day. Only time and the journey to Sun in Shadow would truly tell.


End file.
